Jeopardy! viewers would have to be asleep on the sofa to not know the quiz show’s cardinal rule and central premise: all answers must be phrased in the form of a question.
But what’s the protocol when a correct response is already phrased that way (as in, the answer begins with “who is,” “what is” or “what’s” in Matt Amodio’s case)?
Say the clue is seeking “Who Is Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?”. Does a contestant have to start with “What Is: Who Is”? Sounds questionable.
This situation isn’t regularly addressed on-air by host Ken Jennings as it’s an irregular occurrence. On Friday (October 11), a fan began a thread in the Jeopardy! Subreddit wondering just that.
“Let’s say the board says ‘This book series features a hidden stripped protagonist’, and someone just says ‘Where’s Waldo’ and not ‘What is Where’s Waldo’, would they accept it?” they wrote. “Since it’s in the form of a question?” What are the rules?”
“Your Waldo books were obviously more adult than mine,” the top, albeit unhelpful, comment read, referring to a typo in the post.
However, other fans did come to the rescue, explaining once and for all if a response is already phrased as a question, show phrasing isn’t needed for it to be correct.
“As long as your answer is in the form of a question, it is acceptable,” explained one fan. “For example, if the correct answer was the movie, ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’, you would not need to add anything to the title of the movie when you answered since it is already a question.”
Jeopardy! also explained as much in a 2021 blog post, but it’s rather buried on their website (coincidentally during Amodio’s run as fans were bothered by his “What’s” style). The post was shadily titled…
Other fans recalled instances of the question-answer format being manipulated by contestants to funny yet still technically acceptable degrees.